We are once again revelling in the CSEC and CAPE results that signify our youth’s qualifications, or lack thereof, for tertiary education. We repeat a point made many times before in this space: our obsession with results of exams taken in the Grade 11/Fifth Form — when our children are merely around sixteen years old — is a sign of our country’s repressed development. Like the NGSA at the end of Grade 6 and CAPE at Grade 13, the excitement surrounds the results of these exams and the top performers who will be the recipients of scholarships for furthering their studies.
And it is this drive for scholarships – with a few exceptions – that will be pushing our high school graduates to write every increasing numbers of subjects at these exams. It is a sign of our poverty-stricken economic status, wherein most of our students know they cannot afford the tuition to attend top quality universities outside of Guyana. Be certain that the now incredible and just achieved twenty-five CSEC record will be bested in the very near future, and the race will now be for the number of CAPE subjects that will be written. This year, the top performer in the latter wrote and passed Unit 1 in the two mandatory subjects (Caribbean Studies and Communication Studies) as well as Units 1 and 2 in seven other subjects in the natural science stream. The norm used to be three “other subjects” in the area the student expected to pursue at the tertiary level. The top CAPE student was quite clear in his interviews: he was interested in securing a scholarship.
At one level, the new competition at CAPE might be seen as “progress”, since, as one candidate pointed out, the gap between CSEC and CAPE is very wide. CAPE, for all intents and purposes, is equivalent to a three- or four-credit college course. In fact, passing five CAPE subjects earns the student an “Associate Degree” from CXC, and in overseas universities, credits for one year’s work in the particular subjects. If the competition moves to this level, it should serve to winnow out the serious students from mere dilettantes, and perchance force the education establishment to revive the idea floated in the previous administration for a number of CAPE colleges to be established in the three counties.
With our students entering UG after achieving the basic five CSEC subjects – including Mathematics and English Language – required for “Matriculation”, it has been discovered that most of them are not ready for work at the University level. This places an inordinate strain on the University’s facilities, where it is claimed eight thousand students are accommodated. The CAPE colleges would serve as a transition mechanism for students to begin dealing with the need for more independent work and less “spoon feeding”, which is the norm in University.
This would also allow the Government to tailor students into streams of studies that are more in consonance with the developmental goals of the country. Take, for instance, the now identified need for Guyanese to be qualified for technical jobs in the oil and gas industry. In a general sense, it should be appreciated that the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects at the CAPE level must be inculcated by the individuals who will most benefit from the engineering degrees at University. This will save time, effort and money.
But with all the usual hoopla over the top 1% of students who excelled at CSEC by the law of averages, one has to be concerned at the steadily decreasing numbers that have written the exam in the past five years – from 16,000+ to the present 12,000+. Where have all the missing students gone? Have they dropped out of secondary school?
Finally, there is the handwringing over the mere 63.8% of passes with Grades 1-3 at CSEC. But a more interesting topic would be the percentage of students who were able to matriculate.
